A policy and charging rules function (PCRF) is an entity that uses network operator-defined service policies, subscription information, and other data to make policy decisions. A PCRF may aid network operators in making real-time, subscriber-specific policy decisions to provide varying levels of quality of service (QoS). As a central policy decision point for a network, a PCRF node may be privy to information that other nodes may not, such as user-related information, IP CAN session information, and long term evolution (LTE) network-related information.
An IP CAN is a network though which a user obtains IP connectivity. Examples of IP CAN networks include 3GPP access networks, such as GPRS or EDGE. Other examples include LTE access networks, WLAN access networks, and DSL networks. An IP CAN session is the connection of a user device to the access network for a specific purpose, such as a voice over IP telephone call, web browsing, audio or video downloading, etc. An IP CAN session is set up through signaling between the user device, the PCRF, a subscriber profile repository, and the network access node. At least some of this signaling may contain information that concerns details of the IP CAN session being established.
One node that may not have access to IP CAN session information is a deep packet inspection (DPI) node. A DPI node is a telecommunications entity that examines non-header information of IP packets for which the DPI node is not an endpoint. A DPI node may be employed by network operators for a wide variety of uses, e.g., anti-virus, spam filtering, intrusion detection, and gathering statistical information. However, in order to effectively and efficiently perform various deep packet inspection related functions, such as passive monitoring, active content filtering, web-optimization, or determining whether the traffic matches a policy and charging control (PCC) rule to be applied to the packet stream, a DPI node may require additional IP CAN session-related information, such as the identity, location, or type of device or subscriber associated with detected IP traffic.
One problem associated with conventional DPI node, PCRF, and access network-aware gateway operation is that DPI nodes are not typically aware of IP CAN session information that may be known by access network aware gateways and/or PCRFs. Moreover, current mechanisms do not allow DPI nodes to interact directly with access network aware gateways in order to obtain IP CAN session information.
Accordingly, in light of these difficulties, a need exists for improved methods, systems, and computer readable media for providing IP CAN session information known by access network-aware gateways to DPI nodes.